[Vision2020] Board of Tax Appeals Rules Hart Missed Deadline

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (August 26, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

 

 

Board of Tax Appeals rules Hart missed deadline

 

Panel won't consider use of legislative privilege

 

BOISE - Idaho's state Board of Tax Appeals has rejected state Rep. Phil
Hart's appeal of an order to pay $53,000 in back state income taxes,
penalties and interest, saying his appeal wasn't timely, despite his
argument that his status as a state lawmaker should give him more time than
others.

 

Hart argued that he should have months extra to file his appeal because of
the state Constitution's provision granting freedom from arrest or civil
process to state legislators during legislative sessions or 10 days before
they begin; the appeal period ran out 10 days before the start of this
year's legislative session.

 

But even if that argument were correct, the board found, Hart still missed
the appeal deadlines.

 

The board's decision is especially significant because Hart faces a pending
ethics charge of abuse of legislative privilege for repeatedly citing the
constitutional privilege to win delays in his state and federal income tax
fights. A special House Ethics Committee, which earlier voted 4-3 along
party lines to clear Hart of a conflict-of-interest charge, delayed
considering the abuse of privilege charge to await the decision of the Board
of Tax Appeals.

 

Hart couldn't immediately be reached for comment Wednesday; the office of
his Coeur d'Alene lawyer, Starr Kelso, said it had not yet received the
decision, which was issued Tuesday in Boise and mailed. Hart could appeal
the decision to district court, though a win there would simply bounce the
case back to the same board for a hearing.

 

"The courts have not had occasion to opine on the application of legislative
immunity to the type of circumstances presented here," the board wrote in
its unanimous decision. "Likewise, this board will not make a finding
regarding the validity of the argument. Even if Appellant's position is
accepted (for the sake of argument), we find the appeal untimely."

 

That's because Hart didn't file his appeal until March 31. His 91-day appeal
period - from the time he was ordered to pay on Oct. 2 - ran out on Jan. 1.
The legislative session started on Jan. 10, and ended on March 28. So even
if he was entitled to put off his deadline during the entire legislative
session, he'd only have had one day to file once it ended - and he took two.

 

There's more: The board found that Hart failed to pay the required 20
percent prepayment to file an appeal until April 14 - two weeks later. He
paid part upfront on March 31, and then paid part later, marking a second
missed deadline.

 

"On its face, it appears Appellant's appeal was untimely filed on both
counts," the board wrote in its decision. "The board is without jurisdiction
to hear this appeal. . The statute contains no waiver or exception to the
filing standards."

 

State Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, chairman of the House Ethics Committee,
said, "I think the Ethics Committee would want to know why the thing hadn't
been done in a more timely fashion."

 

Asked in June by The Spokesman-Review why he didn't file his appeal in
October, November or December, Hart said, "I don't know. We were putting our
game plan together."

 

Loertscher said the committee delayed considering the abuse of privilege
charge "because we just didn't want to muddy the water for that appeal. So
as soon as I get word about that and everything's put together, then we'll
probably convene the committee again."

 

He said, "We'll have to make the determination now as to whether or not he's
abused this constitutional privilege or not. Quite frankly, this is probably
the more serious of the two charges in the complaint."

 

The ethics complaint against Hart, filed by House Minority Leader John
Rusche, D-Lewiston, charged Hart with possible abuse of the privilege and
with conflicts of interest for voting on and sponsoring tax legislation
while pressing his own personal fight against the state Tax Commission over
back income taxes.

 

Hart is a third-term Republican from Athol with a history of tax protesting.
He stopped filing both state and federal income tax returns in 1996 while he
pressed an unsuccessful lawsuit claiming the federal income tax was
unconstitutional. He's since been wrangling with both federal and state
authorities over back payments. Public records show he owes nearly $700,000
in state and federal taxes, penalties and interest. In his state appeal,
Hart also argued unsuccessfully that the state income tax is
unconstitutional.

 

Hart was unopposed for re-election to a fourth term in November until Howard
Griffiths, a Hayden businessman, filed against him as a write-in candidate
this summer, saying he was prompted to run against the fellow conservative
Republican because of Hart's tax woes. "We all pay our taxes, and my feeling
is what he did was wrong," Griffiths said.

 

-----------------

 

State Representative Phil Hart (R - Dist 3, Athol)

 

http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/26/26_phil_hart_t620.jpg

 

 

Seeya round town, Moscow.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

"Corporations are an oppressed minority forced to move headquarters from
state to state in search of friendlier tax codes--sometimes being forced to
live just off our shores in tiny mailboxes." 

 

- John Oliver, The Daily Show

 

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